Cognitive flexibility modulates maturation and music‐training‐related changes in neural sound discrimination

Previous research has demonstrated that musicians show superior neural sound discrimination when compared to non‐musicians, and that these changes emerge with accumulation of training. Our aim was to investigate whether individual differences in executive functions predict training‐related changes in neural sound discrimination. We measured event‐related potentials induced by sound changes coupled with tests for executive functions in musically trained and non‐trained children aged 9–11 years and 13–15 years. High performance in a set‐shifting task, indexing cognitive flexibility, was linked to enhanced maturation of neural sound discrimination in both musically trained and non‐trained children. Specifically, well‐performing musically trained children already showed large mismatch negativity (MMN) responses at a young age as well as at an older age, indicating accurate sound discrimination. In contrast, the musically trained low‐performing children still showed an increase in MMN amplitude with age, suggesting that they were behind their high‐performing peers in the development of sound discrimination. In the non‐trained group, in turn, only the high‐performing children showed evidence of an age‐related increase in MMN amplitude, and the low‐performing children showed a small MMN with no age‐related change. These latter results suggest an advantage in MMN development also for high‐performing non‐trained individuals. For the P3a amplitude, there was an age‐related increase only in the children who performed well in the set‐shifting task, irrespective of music training, indicating enhanced attention‐related processes in these children. Thus, the current study provides the first evidence that, in children, cognitive flexibility may influence age‐related and training‐related plasticity of neural sound discrimination.